When you think of a map of the US, you probably break it down by state or quadrants or party affiliation. But MIT, IBM and AT&T's research teams decided to look at who was talking to whom, and the resulting map is pretty captivating.

The researchers organized anonymous data from AT&T mobile phones into interactive maps illustrating which areas place the most calls and texts, and who they're communicating with. The colors represent areas that areas that communicate heavily locally, while the lines are for areas of the country that are in heavy contact remotely, like San Francisco and New York.

The really interesting part is all of the states that duck off into pairs, or to extend the high school lunchroom analogy, horny teenage couples. Louisiana and Mississippi are hot for each other. So are Alabama and Georgia, and the Carolinas have some kind of incesty thing going on between themselves. Then California and Pennsylvania seem to have some teen-angsty identity issues to deal with.

To be honest though, I'm pretty depressed about the results: Both of the states I've lived in (Pennsylvania and New York) are close personal friends with New Jersey. [Gigaom]